The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an item of equipment, particularly for a motor vehicle, and to an item of equipment obtained according to this method.
More particularly, the invention relates to methods for manufacturing motor vehicle items of equipment which comprise at least one inflatable bag such as, for example, items of equipment located in the region of the dashboards of vehicles or in the region of the steering wheels of the latter.
The methods for manufacturing this type of items of equipment which are known in the state of the art essentially consist in fitting the item of equipment to the vehicle, placing the inflatable bag in a dish in the skeleton of this item, then fixing to this skeleton a soft covering which has been made independently of the rest of the item.
This is the case, for example with the central pads of vehicle steering wheels in which the various assembly operations are performed at the vehicle manufacturers'.
It can be understood that these various assembly operations require the various elements of this item to be assembled one after another and that these operations exhibit a certain number of drawbacks, particularly as regards the time required for this assembly and the presence of fastening members such as rivets or the like for fixing these elements to the rest of the skeleton of the item.